Gram's Place

I already shared about my husband’s heart attack here .  That was September.  Now, fast forward to December.  Last week he got his blood test results back.They were AMAZING. LDL of 43! (Is there such a thing as TOO low an LDL?)  He’s been in cardio-rehab for months, and he’s been working very hard at diet and exercise…lifestyle changes in the most extreme way.  Now that he is graduating from cardio-rehab…yesterday we joined a gym. GASP!  I never did do the 10K that I was training for last year in September because the day of the race was the day Shawn was recovering in the ICU from heart surgery.  So, now I can train on the treadmills at the gym, and try again next year. Who knows….maybe cardio-boy will join us for the 10K next year. In November, Shawn’s grandmother Beulah was not doing well.  She turned 92 in May and was still living on her own with the assistance of family members.  But, in November, she had some health problems develop...

For years, I have been begging my husband to let us get a dog.  Years.  He finally agreed in June to let us get one.  So, I began searching for the perfect family dog.  Of course, I have since come to realize that no dog is perfect.  Those were my lofty dreams.  I wanted a dog that wouldn’t poop where it wasn’t supposed to,  would sleep when I wanted it to, would bark only when barked at, would not scratch my floors, and was loyal and devoted.  Basically, I wanted a giga-pet, but I didn’t know that at the time. We found Gibbs at an animal shelter about 2 hours away.  They had plenty of dogs.  He was the only one that didn’t jump on us when we approached him. He didn’t bark like the others. And when we took him out to the yard, he was calm and quiet.  Deceptive little thing. We took him home and learned quickly what having a 6 month old puppy in the house was like.  Definitely not like my trusty dependable Tamogatchi. He was...

It’s still December.  December 14.  I was thinking today about one year ago.  One year ago, we were preparing for Christmas.  Marge, my mother in law, was at the nursing home. She had a tough year.  For the entire year, she had been in and out of the hospital and nursing home. She had MS.  Had been diagnosed with it in the early 80s.  She lived basically symptom free for years.  Then, in 1996, she had an attack and the disease began to progress. She started going to the Mayo Clinic and started a series of different treatments.  One thing led to another, she switched neurologists, and saw different doctors…. and for whatever reason, she opted to stop treatment of her MS.  Sometimes she would say that she wanted to believe that God would heal her.  Other times, she tried alternative treatments, homeopathy.  And as many times as I tried to convince her to pursue aggressive treatment for the disease, I have to respect the fact th...

This morning, I tried to write my Christmas letter.  Tried, and failed.  How do you write a year’s worth of life-changing events in one page and not lose the readers? I don’t want to be “ one of those ”… who write a four page sad Christmas letter and end with Merry Christmas!…. you know who you are. So, I decided this.  I will take the next couple of weeks and actually blog.  And instead of writing a Christmas letter, I’ll just add a link to my blog… and anyone who actually WANTS to read…can come here and get their fill. Brilliant, I know. This morning, as I was thinking about what to write..and how to begin… I thought about December.  Advent. A synonym to advent is actually “beginning”. The first Advent was when Christ came to the earth.  And as Christians, we celebrate each year.  We celebrate his coming to the earth…and we anxiously wait for his second coming.  So, in a sense, it becomes to us a celebration of the beginning…and the waiting ...